San Mateo Children's House: End of Year Lunch

The Children's House End of Year Lunch was on May 20, 2016. We had a lot of preparation to do!

We are grating cheese to use for the lunch!

We are drawing a sign to welcome the parents.

Scooping the cheesecake mix takes a lot of focus.

We are buttering loaves of bread and adding garlic cloves before we put them in the oven.

We are cutting up the cooked chicken that will be going in the salads.

I am mixing up the ingredients for the salad dressing. A classmate is helping me squeeze lemon juice for the dressing.

We ate lunch outside today because the tables are all set up for the End of Year Lunch!

I am setting the table - all the utensils are neatly placed. Now it's time for the bread!

We are adding finishing touches of tomatoes to the salads.

Our guests have arrived!

We welcomed all the parents to the End of Year Lunch.

Now it's time to bring in the salads!

We hope you enjoyed your salads!

We are waiting outside before we bring out the next course - dessert!

We are setting out the desserts and getting ready to bring them in.

Parents got to enjoy mini cheesecakes and tea for dessert!

Xiao-zhang greeted parents at their tables.

It's time to say goodbye! Thank you for coming to the End of Year Lunch! 

If you enjoyed the cheesecake at the lunch and you are interested in making it at home with your children, please see below for the recipe!

Mini Cheese Cakes

Items and Ingredients:

• Foil liners or muffin molds (21/2 inches) - 20
• Muffin baking pans
• Nilla wafers – 20
• Philidelphia cream cheese – 2 packages (8 ounces each)
• Sugar – ½ cup
• Vanilla – 1 tsp
• Eggs – 2 large
• Duncan Hines Fruit Toppers or Pie filling (strawberry, blueberry or cherry)

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 325 degrees
2. Line the muffin baking pans with the foil liners or muffin molds
3. Place one Nilla wafer in each foil liner
4. Using an electric beater mix the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together
5. Add eggs and beat until smooth
6. Spoon the mixture over the Nilla wafers, filling the liners ¾ full
7. Bake on the middle rack for 25-30 minutes. The cheese cakes will puff up.
8. Place the muffin pans on a wire rack to cool down. The cheese cakes will deflate.
9. Top with the fruit topping and chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours minimum or overnight for best results
10. To serve, leave the mini cheese cakes in the liners and place them on a serving platter.
11. Enjoy! 

May 30, Memorial Day (school closed)

Children's Day Celebration Emeryville Campus

こどもの日のお祝いを、5月13日にしました。

We celebrated Japanese Children's Day on May 13th.

昼ごはんは、ほぼ自分たちで作りました！

We made lunch almost all by ourselves!

デザートの餅を丸めて、たれを作りました。
We rolled mochi (rice cake) and made sauce for dessert.

巻き寿司の巻き方を教わりました。
We learned how to make makizushi (rolled sushi).



ごはんの準備ができたら、太鼓の演奏です！
After preparing lunch, we enjoyed a Taiko performance!

太鼓を聞いたあと、叩かせてもらいました。
We got to play Taiko after the performance.

太鼓のあとは、相撲、綱引き、玉入れです。

Taiko was followed by sumo (wrestling), tsunahiki (tug of war) and tamaire (bean bags toss).

ゲームの後は、色々な遊びに夢中になりました。

After the games, we enjoyed various kind of activities.

かき氷
Shaved ice

水風船釣り
Fishing water balloons

缶ぽっくり
Romper Stompers



お手伝いくださったボランティアのみなさま、ありがとうございました！
We would like to express our gratitude for all the help from the parents volunteers.

Progress on African Mask-Making Project

The concept of "masking or masques" is extremely important in the Montessori High School and Erdkinder curriculum. Adolescents must try on different personae and explore self-actualization in order to construct their adult personalities. Whether it's dressing up for Halloween, acting in Spring Festival, or - as in this assignment - actually making a mask that represents something about themselves, Montessori understood the power of the mask in human development.

We were lucky to have spent so much time seeing fascinating masks in museums and reading about masking in our African literature so that we could bring a depth of understanding to this project.

Sketching ideas

Part of the African Mask Assignment was to plan ahead and visualize what we wanted the final product to look like. In addition, students were charged to think of how their mask might say something about them as a person. 

Sketching ideas

Adding relief with paper mache

Using supplemental cardboard to add effects

Finally adding color to the mask

Thinking - there was a lot of pondering over approaches

A final sketch/plan

Masks taking shape

It's coming along - slowly

Happy with the direction at last

Some finished pieces with narratives

Adding texture and interest

A sophisticated use of paper mache to add relief

Adding more colors and layering complexity

Some fine detailing - almost finished

We hope you enjoy seeing our finished masks in the main building's hallway soon!

North African Project Work in the EK/High School - Plus Mask-Making in Art

This entire school year, the EK/high-school program has been studying Africa - an amazing, diverse and fascinating continent. Here, the students are working on a variety of projects about the history, geography and culture of North Africa. Topics ranged from Africa's role in WWII, to the making of the movie Casablanca. We all learned a lot!

Decorating a project board about African architecture

The iconic mosque in the city of Casablanca is a backdrop for this project

Learning how to use the projector to enlarge an image for impact

A finished board

Geography work on the Atlas Mountain Range

Finalizing work on Daily Life in North Africa

Presenting our work to each other - we take notes as there will be a quiz later

Oral presentation is a big part of the Montessori curriculum, even through high-school

Learning how to make a papier mache mask by using balloons, old newspaper and flour-and-water paste

Getting the layers just right

It's messy, but the effects will be good

We need to keep the layers smooth so the final result is good